Niluka to face world's top shuttlers in Korea and India

Sri Lanka's only world ranked shuttler Niluka Karunaratne, left the country yesterday for Korea to challenge the top shuttlers from the world at the Korean open Grand Prix. This will be his first appearance in a Grand Prix during his career and will be the penultimate event he is competing for the year 2012.

Niluka is well supported by his sponsor the McLarens Group of Companies. The long standing relationship between Niluka and the McLarens group started after Niluka won National Championship back in 2001. Niluka's consistent success prompted McLarens to make Niluka a brand ambassador and this support proved to be essential as Niluka's career reached new greater heights.

Not only was he able to reach world rankings but he also represented his country at the London Olympics where he won his first match against world number eight ranked Japanes shuttler Kenichi Tago to enter last sixteen and went down to India's Paruppuli Kashi.When asked about the support he had received, Niluka said he will continue to play he loves thanks to his sponsor who has allowed him to concentrate on the game of badminton. He is expected to leave for India soon after the Korean Grand Prix for the Grand Prix Gold, which is scheduled to be held in Lucknow from 18-23 December. When asked about the upcoming Grand Prix events Niluka said “This is another opportunity for me to face the top notch shuttlers from all over the world. This will be of vital importance for me to improve my ranking at world level.”

Adding further Niluka said “I was placed at 40 position in the rankings few weeks ago and with the Brazilian International Open and the Bahrain Open where I gained runner places and those helped me to go three steps up to be placed at 37. With the two more Grand Prix events in my hand within a period of three weeks and with a better performance hope reach higher levels in the rankings.”

In Brazil Niluka lost to Gautamala's Kevin Corton while in Bahrain he went down to India's Sri Praneeth. “With McLarens Group bearing all costs for these events I am relieved of all my difficulties and it has become my first duty to bring honour to my country as well as the sponsor as they are behind me through out my career,” said Niluka.